Back to the Basics - Intro
ME
I really enjoy preaching books of the Bible. I like going verse by verse through a book and bringing out of those verses what was originally written to Christians in the first century. I like bring out out what it meant to them, in their time and in their culture and also applying to our lives today.
I will get back to that type of preaching and it will probably be out of one of the prison epistles by Paul. Most likely either out of Colossians or Philippians, part of the reason is because Mr. Reese’s newest commentary is the prison epistles.
But for a little while we are going to take a break from the verse by verse for the most part and go back to the basics. It has been a while since I covered the basics of biblical doctrine and the basics of why we exist as a church.
Every once in a while we have that need. To look at ourselves, to see where we are at, what brought us here, and where we need to go in the future. On a personal level for me this is something I have had to do. Last year and finding out that I have Immune thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) has caused me to look at things differently and re-evaluate some things in my life.
Hence I have cut back drastically on my lawn mowing business and have tried to start a new less stressful, less demanding and more enjoyable business. Hopefully this will allow me not to have to work 7 days a week like I was doing before and allow me to spend more time with family.
The reason for doing this is because of taking a look at the basics of life and realizing what is truly important. And the most important things to me are God, serving Him daily, and my family. And with just those 3 things a person can be kept extremely busy. But those 3 things are the basics of life that I want to master the most. But believe me, I’m still a work in progress!
Now as we look at some basic things of the church there will be more than 3. It is very possible we will be looking at these things for at least a few months or longer. And I want to invite you to suggest a basic topic of biblical doctrine, or the church, or of Christian life that you would like to hear more about and I’ll do what I can to cover what you suggest. If you would like to suggest something just write it down and give it to me or drop it in the offering plate so it will get to me.
WE
As we begin, for the next few weeks we will be looking at the purpose of the church and we will be using Acts 2:42-47 in each of the messages. Specifically we will be taking a look at Worship, Fellowship, Discipling, and Prayer. Later I plan to cover more basic Bible doctrines which will include Baptism, The Lord’s Supper and more.
GOD
Acts chapter 2 tells of the be beginning of the church. At the beginning of the chapter the apostles had just chosen the replacement for Judas (the one who betrayed Jesus) and the chapter begins with them being together and the Holy Spirit descending upon them as tongues of fire.
Because of the Holy Spirit they began to speak in other tongues so that all who where there could understand them, because people were there of many different languages. This was at Pentecost, one of the Jews celebrations they came to every year and there were people there from…
Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:9-12 (not on screen)
And just 2 verses down from this (verse 14) the recording of Peter’s first gospel begins. At the end of Peter’s message the people were pierces to the heart and asked what shall we do to be saved. Peter tells them to repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus and they would receive forgiveness of sin and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:41 tells us that about 3,000 people were baptized that day so they were the first people ever to become Christians. Hence we have the beginning of the church. Now what do you do when something new comes into your life? You do everything you can to grow it and nurture it.
ILLUS: Kind of like when you bring a new baby into the world. You put a hold on what is going on in your life and you make every effort possible to give the baby the best start to life as possible. As you know Josh and Ashlynn had my newest grandchild last Sunday… Ivy Ranea. They have been concentrating on her this week and we have stayed away for the most part because we want to give them this special time with her.
Also because grandpa doesn’t change dirty diapers! I’ve heard that Josh has already had Ivy pee and poop on him. I think it’s great for him to have that experience, it’s just turn about fair play and oh how much Josh and Ashlynn are going to learn as Ivy grows up. But that is what it is about. Learning a growing: doing what you know you need to do to give life the best possible opportunity for success. So you do the basics and grow from there.
That’s what these new Christians did in Acts 2. And this is where we get to Acts 2:42-47. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.z 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47
Everything in their life had just changed, they had just received new life in Christ and they had just received the Holy Spirit inside them. They themselves had just become the new temple of God because God has now taken residence inside them in the form of the Holy Spirit.
And the most wonderful thing that you now see happening is that they are doing exactly what God would have them to do. No influence from the world around them. They had just died to that. They gave up this world when they went to the watery grave of baptism and they came up a new creation in Jesus Christ and now — now they are just following their instincts as the Holy Spirit is leading them.
That is such a great thing to read about and to see still today when Christians come together and simply do what God is leading them to do.
I know that I harp on reading the Word of God and prayer a lot and now maybe you know why a little more because look at the first things the first Christians did. The very first thing was devoting themselves to the apostles teachings. They didn’t have the Bible like we do today, but they had the oral teachings of the apostles, those who gave us the New Testament.
Of course Paul wasn’t in the picture yet, but they devoted themselves to finding out more about God, more about Jesus, more about the Holy Spirit and more about how they were to live now that they have come to God through Jesus Christ. This is what we do when we devote ourselves daily to God’s Word.
I like that they devoting themselves to God’s teaching through the apostles is the first thing listed. I don’t know if Luke put the things they did down in order of importance or not. Maybe there is no significance about the order in which he wrote these things down, but one thing is for sure — if we don’t know God’s Word we will not know how to be a Christian. And learning God’s Word includes learning here at church as we are gathered together, but also on your own, hopefully on a daily basis.
But I like that being devoted to the Apostle’s teaching is listed first and that prayer is listed last. For me that is the best pattern for my day. Start the day off with God’s Word and end the day with prayer.
But everything these new Christians are doing in these verses are acts of worship. Devoting themselves to the Apostle teaching — to fellowship — to breaking of bread — and to prayer. All of these things are part of our worship of God. But not just these things.
Being filled with awe as they were in verse 43 is part of worship. All the believers coming together with a common purpose as they did in verse 44 is part of worship. Taking care of the needs of the others and especially of other believers is part of worship as they did in verse 45.
Continuing meeting together with other believers in the temple and we could say church building and as well in each others homes is part of worship. And eating together, being glad together, being sincere from our hearts together, and praising God together as found in verses 46 and 47 are all parts of worship.
Worship is what brings Christians together, but it is also what we do on our own — when we are not together corporately when we devote ourselves to God daily. And worship is something everyone of us do. We worship what is most important to us whether that be things in this world or God.
Check out this video on Worship defined.
YOU
What about you? We are going to talk about worship next week as we get back to the basics. Worship really is a basic of life because everyone worships something. Worship is what we were created to do. It is in our DNA. God created us to worship Him, but we don’t always do that because of all the other things in this world, but we will worship something.
How do you define worship? This week on Facebook I will post some questions to the church body. Now I know many of you are not on Facebook so if you want to can text me or write me a note and give it to me, but you have to do it before next week. Preferable before Thursday because that is when I try to finish my messages.
Here are the questions: How do you define worship? What are some forms of worship? What are some acts of worship you practice?
We saw the video on defining worship, but I would like to hear from you. So get on the church Facebook this week. The questions should have posted while I have been speaking this morning.
John Piper’s gives a summary on What is Worship — The inner essence of worship is to know God truly and then respond from the heart to that knowledge by valuing God, treasuring God, prizing God, enjoying God, being satisfied with God above all earthly things. And then that deep, restful, joyful satisfaction in God overflows in demonstrable acts of praise from the lips and demonstrable acts of love in serving others for the sake of Christ.
WE
My challenge this week then is to answer the questions on Facebook by Thursday or if you don’t have Facebook just write your answers down and get them to me. And secondly to make a point to do an act of worship to God each day of this week. You may already to that, if you don’t what a great thing to do everyday to keep your focus on God.
